My daughter, so far, likes various earthbound machines, playing with electronics, watching old Kaiju movies and other geeky pursuits. She loves any chance to share one of Dad's hobbies, but she's not warming up to space very easily. She wants to like it, but at this point, I'm not sure Ro really understands what she's seeing when I show her videos or pictures pertaining to spaceflight. It occurred to me that there are many more things that must be at least somewhat understood before space will make sense to a kid.
The question is, where to start, and how to explain in terms a little girl of 6 years will comprehend.
My professional advice? Don't push it. If she's not interested in learning it right now, teach her what she is interested in learning.
She's 6; her mind just might not be developed in the area of understanding the 'bigness' and the concept of 'no gravity' or 'no air.' Teach at her level of physical development and let that grow.
Astronomy? Understanding what space is, what stars and planets are, the huge distances between things? What is the Earth? How do I help her connect in her mind that disc in the sky with the grey landscape Buzz Aldrin is standing on?
The first part of this is pointless...until she's ready to grasp it.
The second part can be approached via some experiments. You have any tall buildings (or any biggish building...even your home would work, but not as well) around where you live?
Take her to a tall building. Stand right up close to it. Very close. Have her face it, and describe to you what she sees. Write it down or record it. Take some pictures (have her take some pictures, and you take some pictures of her with the 'blank grey wall' behind her).
Then, drive to a location where you can see the whole building...it may look small. Have her now describe it, and do the picture thing again. Make sure she understands that this is the same building...it has not changed. What has changed is her perspective of it.
If she does not get it right away - no fret. Just keep the pictures and the descriptions handy at home...let her look at them occasionally. Her mind will be working on the problem, perhaps in the background. Sometimes, these things take a while to soak in, but the soaking period leads to better permanence.
You are teaching more about "space" as a concept with this method....not so much space as a "place." That's very important. You want her to learn about spatial relationships...what it means to be close, far, over, under, behind, etc.
Do some other experiments with shadows.
One of the 'games' we played a few years ago to help my children understand the relationship between earth, moon and sun was to, well, play earth, moon and sun. I was the sun (so I got to sit still!), my daughter was the earth (she had to walk around me in a circle) and the boy was the moon (he had to run around her as she walked around me).
It was years ago, and they remember it. All it takes is three people, or two people and a chair or something.
Let the "earth" person rotate on her axis and teach about day/night and the phases of the moon. Yell "stop" and show lunar and solar eclipses.
Take some pictures (perhaps with the building experiment above) using the technique of forced perspective. Make her look the same size or bigger than the building...you may have to do this "for real" with her looking at you as you appear bigger than that tall building so she does not think it's only a camera trick, and use that to explain how the moon looks as big as the sun only because it is so much closer (just like in the experiment).
In other words...make it all experiential. I guarantee that if you can find ways to turn what you want her to learn into things she can see and touch directly, she's get the main points and more importantly, they will stick.
Forget vocabulary and terminology. Introduce that stuff as it becomes useful and natural. Just speak in plain terms and help her just become aware of her space around her and how she interacts in it.
Physics? The laws of gravity and motion that make a rocket fly and keep satellites from falling down? Why do things get hot when they fall back to Earth? Gravity, drag, momentum, friction, action/reaction?
Forget this stuff at her age unless/until she is showing an interest in learning it.
If she likes video games, I do suggest the use of 'simulators' like
orbiter. The most useful "sample" simulation is docking a space craft on a space station...it will teach a LOT about flight control in space. If she plays a regular flight simulator and orbiter, you can ask her why the flight characteristics are different.
You can teach a lot about gravity by repeating and expanding on Galileo's famous experiment. From somewhere high (at least 8 or ten feet), drop a bunch of stuff and time the fall time. You can cover gravity and air resistance in qualitative and quantitative ways...
But, I do caution that you don't "explain" what it is she's seeing...let her noodle it out. Even if she does not make the connections for weeks afterward. Give it time. It will soak in.
I helped some home schooling friends with this sort of thing a couple of years ago. It was two girls, and we did a BUNCH of 'dropping' experiments. We got to where they were making hypotheses about which would fall faster or would they fall at the same time and were testing them.
The younger one (8 at the time) tied that in to a seemingly unrelated observation about 3 months later...they were out somewhere and saw something, and she said "hey, that reminds me of dropping things off the rock we did at the park." Her "connection" was the kind of thing I've seen PhD's miss.
Air resistance?
Have her try to throw a sheet of paper or frisbee edge-on vs face-on and see which works better. Ask her why (don't tell her...that's a common thread here...LET HER FIGURE IT ALL OUT...just guide her). If she's not getting it, have her wave her hands around in the air and ask her what she feels. Do it edge-on and sideways...what's the difference? Which way "felt" easier?
Action/Reaction?
Hold your hands up while you sit. Ask her to stand in front of you and push on your hands with hers. Have her push hard enough so that she eventually falls backwards. Ok, now ask her "how did you pushing forward on me cause YOU to move BACKWARDS?" There are many variations.
We did an interesting one with this on the boat one day.
We had a dock line holding the boat close to the dock, but not touching it. Standing on the boat and pulling the dock line (direction of pull toward the boat) moved the boat toward the dock!
Standing on the dock and pulling on the dock line (direction of pull away from the boat) pulled the boat toward the dock!
How is it possible that pulling in opposite directions both resulted in the boat moving in the same direction?
Yes, they really will eventually arrive at "equal and opposite reaction pairs" with this kind of approach if you don't tell them. It may take a while, but they get it.
See, science is not facts, fancy terminology or "the scientific method." Science is observation. You don't even really have to do the interpretation part, the conclusion part, if you don't really want to..but it's human nature to seek some form of explanation for what we observe.
The trick is to make her aware of the observations she's already doing....one way to do that is to ask questions and answer hers (sometimes with questions of your own).
Environmental science? What is the atmosphere and what is a vacuum? Why do astronauts need protection?
Don't try to "direct" this stuff like this. Just let it flow naturally from her natural curiosity. If you do experiments with her, even without "structure" (see a bird flying, ask her how it can fly...what's holding it up? air...that sort of thing), she will ask questions about what is of interest to her. Those are the questions you answer, and for each you answer, she will probably ask ten more.
Her brain is assimilating all of it. One day, a light bulb will go off inside, and she will have her epiphany moment. "Hey, that's why astronauts have to wear protective suits!"
Engineering? Why is the rocket so big? Why are pieces falling off? Why does only a small piece come back? How does it fly and steer without wings?
History? What happened when? What's current, old, not yet possible? Why are the moonwalkers all a bunch of old geezers?
Well, for some of this sort of thing (and to "generate interest" for example), we watch movies like APOLLO 13 and documentaries. Then we discuss them...I am very Socratic in my teaching style, so I ask a lot of questions.
Ask her why SHE thinks the moon walkers are a bunch of geezers. Let her associate it with her own experience. How old were you in 1969?
In my case, when it came up with one of my children, I could say, "I was your age when this happened."
This is all knowledge I just take for granted. Where do I even begin explaining it? How do I make it interesting?
You don't "make it interesting." The interest has to come from her.
Both of my children happen to be INSANELY inquisitive...about everything. We try our hardest to answer their questions - honestly. Feeding her own natural curiosity about the world around her is among the best gifts you can give her. Accepting that her interest may not lie along yours is as well. One of the worst things is to try to "force" interest on her.
That said, she will likely develop at least a passing interest in whatever you are doing...if you say, "I enjoy this movie, would you like to watch it with me?" and watch APOLLO 13 together, she will probably ask a lot of questions you can answer and springboard into other subjects. Just make it a conversation.
"Hey Ro, you remember that movie we watched the other day? You wonder why they did x?" And go from there.
Also, if you read about it, share your books with her. Have her draw pictures of rockets and see if she begins to associate form following function.
Take her to museums where she can see the real space craft....models are awesome, but the real thing is even better.
Finally, again, don't force it. Let it come naturally from her and your responses from you. It does not have to be "a lesson; it's just a game, a movie, a conversation or time with Dad.
And that's the VERY best gift you give her.
